


before the sun pushes out the night

by smc_27



Series: til there's nothing left [1]
Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Summer Fic, allie works in her aunts' candy shop in a beachside town, harry in summer just hits different
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24795445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smc_27/pseuds/smc_27
Summary: Allie looks outside and sees a fast car pull up into the spot just outside and this hot guy about her age gets out.No. No distractions. She is not thinking about guys this summer. She turns her back to the front door, busies herself facing chocolates on the shelf.
Relationships: Harry Bingham/Allie Pressman
Series: til there's nothing left [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1793419
Comments: 9
Kudos: 73





	before the sun pushes out the night

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted as a drabble on my tumblr, but I've written a lengthy followup I wanted to post here, so adding this fic as part of a series.

When she’s 17 and heartbroken and likely bordering on actual depression, her parents ask her, the last Saturday before the end of her junior year, if she’d like to spend the summer with her aunts in their little beach community on the coast. Allie cries as she says yes. She’s been asking for this for years and the timing was never right. She didn’t even think to ask this time because she figured the answer would be no. 

They tell her there’s one catch. Janine and Libby are counting on her to help in the candy shop. They’ll pay her, but she’ll work at least 20 hours a week. Allie nods her head quickly. A summer outside of her shitty hometown and a way to make money? This could be the best summer ever. 

… … ...

The only reason he’s here is because his mom said he could stay home by himself for the summer, but she was installing a tracker on his car and motion-activated cameras in all common areas in the house. If he was going to have parties and act foolish, there was no point. He knows rolling his eyes and telling her he’d go pack his things was a dead giveaway that parties and foolishness had been exactly his plan, but whatever. Who cares? 

He doesn’t want to go to the vacation house this year because it’s full of memories of his dead dad. This place was his dad’s pride and joy, the big house on the beach, the boat, the back deck barbecue. The status. 

(Harry doesn’t hate it either. It just fucking sucks this year. He’s only just started being able to go through his hometown without everyone looking at him like he’s a fucking orphan. Everyone in this little summer town is gonna do the same thing now.) 

… … ...

Janine makes up the guest bedroom for Allie. It’s got its own en suite bathroom, which...She’s never had her own bathroom in her life. Then they grill burgers and veggies and Libby hands Allie a beer and winks, says they’re not as stuffy as her parents and they know she’s responsible. They sit on the back deck and Allie looks out at the water, her feet up on the railing. She sits there even after Janine and Libby say they’re going to bed. It gets dark and the air smells like saltwater and Allie knows she should sleep so she can work at 10am tomorrow, but she stays out anyway, has another beer because she knows she’s allowed. 

Her first day, she tries to learn the stock room and the point of sale system and spends too much time watching Janine pull hot sugar into hard candies. Libby slides her the pieces that are too ugly to sell and Allie suggests, “You could make little bags of the ugly candies and sell them cheap. For kids who don’t have much money.”

Libby laughs, tells her all the kids around here have money, but she likes the idea and her waistline will, too.

Allie looks outside and sees a fast car pull up into the spot just outside and this hot guy about her age gets out.

_No_. No distractions. She is not thinking about guys this summer. She turns her back to the front door, busies herself facing chocolates on the shelf. 

… … ...

Since he was a kid, he’s been coming to this candy shop. He remembers his dad handing him a $100 bill and telling him to go wild. He’d been like, seven, and the two women who run the shop were so nice and made him laugh and let him try things before he bought them. It’s one of his favourite memories from summers here as a kid. 

He wants his sister to have a memory like that. He knows their dad never did the same with her. So Harry pulls the bill from his wallet and hands it to Katie, saying she can get whatever she wants. And it’s fine. He told his mom he was gonna do it. She’d called him a ‘good boy’ which he fucking hates, and patted his cheek like he’s 12. 

He’s busy laughing at his sister and then busy checking out the girl behind the counter bent down stocking peanut clusters, or whatever, when Libby steps out from the back and says, “Is that little Harry Bingham?”

Fuck. 

He throws on a grin and meets her in the middle of the store. She hugs him too tightly and puts her hand on his face to look at him. He hasn’t seen her in ages. She and Janine didn’t come to his dad’s funeral, but they sent flowers and a card. He remembers calling them afterward to say thank you. It was sweet of them and they didn’t have to do it.

“Handsome,” Libby says, and Harry makes like he’s bothered, but he’s not. If he had a dime for every time an older woman called him handsome…

His sister’s walking towards him with a truly massive lollipop, the kind that’s handmade here, and multicoloured. His mom’s gonna flip; she thinks these things are so messy. (He’d gotten one on his shopping spree too, and he remembers her saying, “Never again,” to his dad as she tried to get the blue dye off Harry’s hands). Katie puts it in his hand so she can continue shopping.

“Allie.” Libby’s looking over at the counter, to the cute girl - super cute, now that he sees her face, too - and waves her over. Allie pushes her hair off her forehead with her fingertips. Her nails are polished royal blue. “Our niece. She’s here for the summer.”

He can almost read Allie’s mind when she looks at him and gives a little wave. He’s used to this look. (Okay, so, if he also had a dime for every time a girl his age looked at him like this…)

“Nice to meet you,” he says, and reaches out his hand. She presses her palm against his. “Harry.”

“I heard,” she says, with a little grin on her lips. “Not so little.”

Okay, _hot_. 

Katie walks up to him, says, “Can I get a hundred peanut butter cups?” and Libby laughs and Harry asks her to think through the math on that one. She huffs and walks off. Allie’s sort of smiling at him like she doesn’t know what’s going on but she thinks it might be cute. Harry winks at her and follows his sister. 

10 minutes later, Katie’s sliding her $100 across the counter towards Allie, and when Harry pulls out his wallet to cover the tax his sister didn’t consider, he says, “We could hang out,” to Allie, and she opens the cash drawer and blushes. “When’re you off?”

“7:00!” Janine calls from the table at the back where she’s labelling boxes of mixed chocolates. 

Harry thinks it’s important Allie answer for herself, so when he raises his brow and she nods, he says, “I’ll see you then.”

… … ...

This is a truly bad idea. Maybe one of the worst. She was supposed to spend the summer on her own. She has a reading list she hasn’t even started. She has a bunch of albums she wanted to listen to beginning to end, no interruptions. She brought her dad’s old camera so she could take a bunch of pictures and see if photography is something she’s any good at. 

Waiting outside the store at five past seven for this hot stranger to show up and, what, take her somewhere to…

This is such a bad idea. She puts her hands in her back pockets and then sees him walking up. 

“Hey,” he says, smiling. His head’s tilted to the side and he looks her up and down. This is exactly the kind of guy she knows will be trouble. From the fast car, to the wallet full of cash, to the ridiculously hot grin on his lips. 

“Hey.” 

He softens a little. She likes it more. “You’re nervous.” 

It’s an observation and Allie presses her lips together. “I don’t know you. My aunts seem to think you’re decent enough to ship me off with.” Harry laughs. Allie likes the sound. She’s been smelling fries since she stepped outside, and she’s starving. “Buy me fries and a funnel cake and we’ll go from there?”

The second Harry slings his arm around her shoulder like they’re old friends, or something, she thinks he’s obnoxious and too much and she doesn’t want to see him again. 

But then he shares his nachos with her, looks hot licking sour cream from his upper lip, and answers all the questions she has. He’s staring at her as the sun starts going down, and she realizes they’ve been hanging out way too long for...what is this? A first date? She feels weird thinking it when she doesn’t even really know him yet. 

“You look really pretty,” he tells her, and it’s either sincere or he knows how to fake sincerity really well. She should give him the benefit of the doubt. 

(And she wants him to mean it.) 

“So do you,” she says, grinning at him as they walk along the beach, her flip flops in her hand. He looks almost bashful at the compliment. She wonders if it’s that she called him pretty, or if he just wasn’t expecting it. She’d definitely pegged him as the type who knows exactly how hot he is. 

But the fading sun casts an orange hue across his skin and she can almost picture what he’ll look like by the end of the summer with more of a tan. 

He walks her back to Janine and Libby’s, then looks sly when he asks, “Same time tomorrow?” and she can’t think of a reason to say no.

… … ...

He kisses her for the first time on a Sunday when she’s sipping a vanilla Coke and wearing a two piece and leaning back on a big beach towel with him. He could absolutely not go there with her, but he _wants_ to. He’s really into her, thinks he’s wanted to kiss her since that first night together. She sips from a purple and white striped paper straw and says something about being too warm, wonders if he’ll come into the water with her. 

He asks if he can kiss her instead. She’s smiling when she nods and he leans in. 

The second he does it, he knows he’s really, truly fucked. He likes her too much already. 

… … …

She brings him some of the ugly candies every time she’s meeting up with him after work. He doesn’t like grape flavoured things, she learns. He says they taste like cough syrup. Allie takes them back from him and asks what his favourites are. 

They watch movies at his massive house one evening, and it gets late and dark and instead of walking her home, he reaches for the keys to his car and Allie asks if it’d be bad if they drove along the coast for a bit. She doesn’t have a curfew as long as Libby and Janine know where she is and who she’s with, so she texts that they’re out for a drive and Janine replies telling them to be careful. 

Harry stops at a parking area off the side of the road and Allie teases him for being predictable. But then his hand sinks into her hair and he kisses her, and it stops being funny.

… … ...

Katie’s afraid of fireworks, so after dinner he heads out alone and meets Allie. She’s with Libby and Janine, and licking chocolate off the pad of her thumb from whatever concoction they’ve made up and tested at home. She asks if he wants some. He clears his throat and gets laughed at by all three of them. Whatever. Kill him for wanting her. 

As they walk, Allie slips her hand into his - which is sorta new, especially in public - and talks to him about how she thinks America is fucked, and the whole idea of the flag is fucked, and the anthem is racist, and the only reason she’s taking part in this is because fireworks are pretty. Harry kisses her temple. He likes how opinionated she is. She’s smart and clever and she makes him think. She’s not shy about saying how she feels, and he digs that about her.

He takes her to the edge of the beach, this rocky area no one ever goes to, and helps her climb up with him. It’s the best vantage point for the fireworks, but it’s also totally quiet and away from the crowd. Allie takes his face in her hands and kisses him. The fireworks start and she’s not even watching. Harry spins her around in his arms and rests his head against hers a little. Everything about this is too fast, but he doesn’t care. It feels good. Allie feels good. What else matters?

… … ...

She tells him about Will, and how everything went. He’s cool about it. Well, he says Will sounds like an idiot and makes her laugh, and then genuinely, sweetly, says he’s sorry she had to go through it. Harry tells her about his last girlfriend and how they ended. Allie plays with the curl that likes to fall down into his face. They’re on her bed, him leaning over her, moving his hand slowly across her stomach. Libby comes upstairs to tell them it’s nearly time for dinner, and raises a brow like she’s got an eye on them. 

(Janine had asked her last week if she and Harry are sleeping together. God, she’s known him three and a half weeks. She’s not going to have sex with him. Not that she doesn’t _want_ to. She does. She just...)

Harry’s finger dips below the waistband of her linen shorts. He’s watching it, too. Allie presses her fingers into his hair at the back of his head and tells him to behave himself. His eyes are dark and his grin is hot when he glances back at her, kisses her hard, tongue pressing into her mouth. She can’t say any guy has ever made her feel like this before. 

… … ...

One minute they’re on the beach at the back of his house, and the sun’s reflecting off her hair and the sunglasses of his she borrowed and looks insanely hot in, and the next the skies are opening up and it’s a downpour. Allie’s laughing as she tries to grab all their things and keep them from getting wet. She wraps them all up in her beach towel and Harry holds his shirt over their heads as they run towards the house. There’s no one inside when they get there. 

Allie’s in her navy two piece, her tanned skin glistening with rain water, her hair pasted to her forehead. Harry doesn’t mean to lick his bottom lip, but he can’t help it. 

“You look hot, too,” she says, reading his mind, then presses herself all up against him. “Let’s go to your room.” 

Their bathing suits are a wet mess on the floor, and Allie’s gasping beneath him, and Harry presses his mouth against her shoulder and wonders how the _hell_ they fit together so well.

… … ...

By August, she’s thinking about him all the time, thinking she’s falling in love with him, and scared he doesn’t feel the same. 

The sun’s shining in her eyes when she feels him staring and glances over at him.

“What?” she asks. 

“Nothing,” he says, smiling, still looking at her. She’s determined to cross at least some of the books off her list, so she brought one to his house and they’re on his back porch. He’s reading The Great Gatsby because he never has and she says it’s shitty and he wanted to know if that’s true. (It is. If she has to convince him after he’s read it, she’s prepared with talking points.) 

“You’re not looking at me like it’s nothing.” 

Harry blinks at her slowly, uses his pinky to brush her hair back from her forehead only for it to fall again. 

“You’re right,” he tells her in this soft voice she immediately falls for. She tips her head back against the swing, and he rocks them gently. “It’s not nothing.”

She doesn’t make a joke of it. She’s too flattered. Her heart’s beating too hard. 

… … ...

She leaves in 10 days and he’s off to Georgetown in three weeks. She brings him pineapple flavoured candies that have little suns inside them. 

They’re just not talking about the fact that summer’s almost over, and he hates it. He doesn’t want them to be over just because long days and their time together in this place are. 

“What if we run away together?” he suggests, his hand sliding up and down her back in his bed. She laughs a little. “Higher education must be overrated.”

“Or,” she starts, then turns over and he’s distracted by all this new bare skin to look at. Allie puts her hand on his face so he’ll look at her. “Or, we could just try.”

She sounds quiet, scared of what he might say. Like she thinks maybe this has just been a fling and he’ll go off to school and end it and they’ll never talk again, or something. 

He nods instead of telling her she’s crazy for thinking he wouldn’t wanna be with her. 

“Could try.” He kisses the tip of her nose, then slides his hand down over her hip. “Or could just do it.”

Allie laughs - she’s happy - and pushes him onto his back, kisses him hard on the mouth. 

“You like me.”

“Guilty,” he says through a grin, and Allie presses a candy past his lips and then they start making plans about how they’re going to make this work.


End file.
